No-e-mail Fridays—that idea is not an official policy, but just the suggestion of a prohibiting electronic messaging for one day a week was enough to improve communication within Marco’s Pizza, the 171-unit Toledo, Ohio-based chain with a goal of 1,500 stores. To manage that expansion, the owners of the 30-year-old pizza chain recently spun off the franchising department into an independent company called Marco’s Franchised Services that will work exclusively for the brand to handle every aspect of its franchising.
In reaching the 1,500-unit goal, Marco’s will need to have 60 to 70 area representatives overseeing 100 territories in the United States. The area reps will be responsible for developing, recruiting and training franchisees. So far Marco’s has 26 area reps in 13 states.
With all of the reps and the franchisees, as well as members of the executive team who own their own stores, communicating well has become paramount, said Cameron Cummins, vice president of marketing and franchise sales for MFS.
Are you really not using e-mail on Fridays?
Yes, but mostly for the executive team and area reps. We got some push-back from people when we first suggested it.
So we had to hold off and talk to everyone about what we wanted to do and the rationale behind it.
What’s the problem with e-mails?
When you are getting big and growing fast, there is a potential for [messages] to be taken out of context. A written message is different than speech. You don’t have the facial expressions, the voice inflictions. And people don’t always take the time to write a thorough e-mail. They do not get the meaning, it’s not interpreted right. We had a couple of circumstances where e-mails were taken out of context and created a hornet’s nest.
So what do you do on Friday’s to get messages out?
Pick up the phone. Talk to each other. A lot of us are in the car all the time. I’m in Chicago; I just got back from a four-hour drive from Toledo. I save the phone calls for the drive home. From now on, if we have a topic that is somewhat detailed and involves many people—get off the e-mail and pick up the phone.
